Artists
In Trouble, Artists Making Trouble
Artists have always made
trouble, and they’ve always been in trouble. Artistic imagery involves issues of belief, identity, and
morality, and some artists step over the bounds, deliberately or
accidentally. In the past, artists
ended up in jail, and some ended up dead for what they’ve created. Artistic controversy is still very much
alive and well and irritating the powerful and the not so powerful.
These are all artists
from the last 40 years. Most are
still alive, some are not (Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, Guston, Mapplethorpe are
dead).
Wojnarowicz's very controversial film
David Wojnarowicz
Chris Ofili
Christo
Andres Serrano
Karen Finley in performance (warning, strong stuff)
Karen Finley
Karen Finley
Robert Mapplethorpe
Jean-Michel Basquiat
A news report on Ai Wei Wei's ongoing legal troubles
Ai Wei Wei
Rachel Whiteread
Trailer for Cremaster
Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney
Judy Chicago
Richard Serra
Daniel Libeskind
Martin Puryear
Phillip Guston
Anselm Kieffer
Damien Hirst
Jeff Koons
Gerhard Richter
Joseph Beuys
It is hard not to have
an opinion about any of these artists.
They all make work to deliberately provoke a reaction. I expect you to have an opinion and to
express it. If you do, don’t just
throw it out there, make a case for your point of view. Some of the controversies are about
content, (most of them), some are about the form of the works of art (Serra,
Guston, Liebeskind, Basquiat).
Some are controversial because of matters of sexuality (Chicago,
Wojnarowicz, Mapplethorpe). Others
are controversial for religious reasons (Ofili, Wojnarowicz, Serrano). Other artists became controversial
because of issues of identity and history (Puryear, Kieffer, Liebeskind,
Whiteread, Wei Wei). Political and
religious authorities intervened in a number of these controversies (Ofili,
Mapplethorpe, Wei Wei, Serrano, Wojnarowicz).
Your task is to choose
one of these artists, find out
what you can, and write a 5 page paper on your artist. Your
paper must be typed, double spaced, with a bibliography in addition to
the 5 pages of text. You are
encouraged to use illustrations.
Why is the artist you
chose controversial? What is the
controversy all about? What
consequences has the artist faced over their work? Is the controversy about the artist or their work or
both? Do you think the arguments
and criticisms of their work misrepresent the artist, or describe the work
accurately? Is the criticism
fair? What do you think the
artist wants to accomplish? What
is the art about? What is the
artist’s background and how might that affect the way they make art? Do you think that they succeed? What do you think about the artist’s
work?
Your task is to explain
these artists and the controversy around their work.
Papers are due last
day of class, December 12.
